- 2 days ago
Lady A joins Katie Neal inside the Audacy Studios inside the Hard Rock located in the heart of Nashville to talk about their "baby boom era," new Christmas collection, and holiday tour.
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00:00Well, here to spread some Christmas cheer is seven-time Grammy Award-winning Lady A.
00:05Thank you guys for coming in.
00:06Thanks for having us.
00:07I appreciate it.
00:07I know that you guys have had the busiest year, including the welcoming of two new babies to the group.
00:15Hilary, you and your husband had a little girl this year.
00:17How's she doing?
00:18She's great.
00:19She is a little over three months old now and FaceTimed her on the walk-in, getting real smiles.
00:26And everybody's great.
00:27Watching my oldest three, just the way that they've grown and matured and how much they adore their little sister is so, so special.
00:36And so we're doing great.
00:38We're a little tired, but it's good.
00:41The girls, they probably feel like they have a baby doll, right?
00:42They do.
00:44Yes, absolutely.
00:45Like a real life baby doll.
00:45And they're so helpful.
00:46They're so helpful.
00:47That's so fantastic.
00:48And then Charles, you and Cassie just had a little boy.
00:51Oh, my gosh.
00:51He's doing great.
00:52It's fun.
00:53I mean, Ward, same.
00:54Ward is just like our nine-year-old is just loving it.
00:57Yeah.
00:57You know, but he doesn't have to wake up in the middle of the night, so he gets stuck.
01:00But it's great.
01:02I mean, it's definitely an adjustment.
01:05I'm excited for Christmas.
01:06That's when I feel like he'll be a little bit more settled down, too, and really kind of show a little bit more smiles and personality, too.
01:14So it's just a fun time.
01:16It's a head trip, though.
01:17I bet it is.
01:18I thought we were done with it.
01:18This is a big surprise for you guys, right?
01:20It was big.
01:20It was a big surprise.
01:21I was not prepared for a new baby in my 40s.
01:25When Cassie told you, what was your reaction?
01:27I was at a writing appointment.
01:29It's funny.
01:29I was at a buddy, Sam Ellis, and after he found out, he was like, dude, I actually have a ring camera.
01:36Because I'd walked out and got on the phone, and he goes, I have a ring camera, and he goes, I hope you don't mind, but, like, you know, and he sent it to us, like, this is gold.
01:45It was me in a reaction, and I'm like, what are you kidding?
01:49I'm just, like, laughing.
01:51And then we kind of get back that night, and then it was like, whoa.
01:55Yeah.
01:55And it was, like, a little bit of, like, whoa, like, really, like, you know, so, but it's been wonderful.
02:03I mean, I think, you know, just shows you, you know, God will throw you a little curveball, and it's going to be great.
02:09I mean, you know, it was, we kind of had our next 10 years planned out.
02:15Got to reset that.
02:16I told Charles I can relate.
02:17I was 14 when my only sister was born.
02:20Really?
02:20And so, it just, your whole life changes, and I can say from the sibling's perspective, like, it is so cool to know that you are, like, you're never alone, ever again.
02:31Yes.
02:32Like, it's just such a sweet, sweet bond.
02:34It's amazing.
02:35I actually, I have a sister who's 13 years older than me, and so my nephews are actually, one of them's closer in age to me, but, like, they're, like, 25 and 21, so it's crazy.
02:43And then I've got nephews that are three.
02:45I had two siblings.
02:47I mean, so I've got three older ones, but my brother, Josh, and I are close in age, but then I have a brother and sister that were 10 years older than me.
02:55And I think I wouldn't have gotten into music if it wasn't for the two of them bringing home music.
03:00I mean, they would bring.
03:00What are their influence?
03:01I mean, I was eight years old, you know, and they're bringing home whatever they're listening to college, so I'm listening to REM.
03:06You know, I remember hearing, like, Dave Matthews' band for the first time, you know, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, all those acts, you know, that I would not have, you know, I would have been into whatever, you know, Disney songs probably.
03:20Yeah, exactly.
03:20But I was listening to, you know.
03:22Whatever mom and dad are on the radio.
03:23Yeah, listening to Black Sabbath at eight years old, like, this is cool.
03:26Right.
03:27And then, Dave, you and your wife, you had a baby last summer.
03:29It's been a whole baby boom.
03:31We're in a baby boom era.
03:33Truly.
03:33That's our new mood.
03:34But no, it's great.
03:35We got our third, a one-year-old named Joseph at home.
03:37So he's great.
03:37He's running all over the place and falling down and hitting his head on everything.
03:41Kids of that age are, like, Gumby, and I swear, they're, like, trying to kill themselves.
03:44I know.
03:45I know.
03:45Can I do it?
03:46I know.
03:47It's just even, like, my wife's been out of town for, like, eight days, and I'm like, oh, boy, this has been a lot.
03:51Yeah, let's just take a moment and celebrate Dave Haywood for that fact.
03:54Well, I say it with a caveat, because my wife did that for years while we really toured heavily.
03:59So anytime I bring that up, she's like, do you remember our first child when you were gone with Need You Now for, like, 300 days?
04:06I'm like, you got it.
04:07I'm sorry.
04:08Whatever you need.
04:09Whatever you need, honey.
04:10Well, I'm very curious, like, amongst all the life changes and the babies, at what point did you guys start talking?
04:14You were like, we should do another holiday album, because you've been done a full one in 13 years.
04:19Yes.
04:19Well, we really wanted to do a Christmas tour, because in our entire career, we have never toured.
04:24We've done a Christmas special.
04:26We've done CMA Country Christmas.
04:28We've done some performances.
04:29But we've always just talked about, at some point, we would love to tour for Christmas.
04:35And so we thought, well, if we're touring, we might as well freshen it up with some new music.
04:40And so we got in the room and wrote two new originals, and then found a few of our favorite classics.
04:48Just kind of reimagined them, too.
04:49I think we went, production-wise, a little bit more organic this time.
04:54Our first volume was so many strings and horns and just the full on, like, you know, what we love about Michael Buble and a lot of those other artists and their Christmas records.
05:05But so to have that to live alongside this tour is really special.
05:11What month were you guys writing Christmas music in?
05:13February and March.
05:14February and March.
05:15We were kind of early.
05:15It was a little bit wintry.
05:17Yeah.
05:17It was cold.
05:18But then we were recording in the screen.
05:19When we wrote Wouldn't Be Christmas, yeah, I think it was March.
05:22It was a really cold day at the beginning of March, I think, when we wrote Wouldn't Be Christmas.
05:25Yeah.
05:25Because then we went in and recorded in May.
05:28God, time flies.
05:29It feels like we wrote that five months ago.
05:30And a lot of that had to do with, you have to record by early summer, early to mid-summer.
05:36But then I was pregnant, and so May was kind of the tail end of when I could, like, not just heave my way through a song.
05:43I was going to say, you start to run out of room.
05:45What was maybe, what was your favorite song that you guys got to record this round?
05:50Oh, God, it's hard.
05:52I mean, I do think there's something that you, you know, you don't want to put too many originals on a Christmas record.
06:00People want to hear the familiar sounds.
06:02But I feel like we really, like, put our best foot forward with these two originals that we did.
06:08So, you know, that's always the dream is, like, what if?
06:12Could you write the iconic Christmas?
06:13Would you write the one because you can name on your hand in the last two decades how many Christmas songs have actually stuck around, like Mariah Carey's or, you know, and, you know, that's just really difficult and it's tough.
06:26But I don't know.
06:28I will say I love how we reimagined Last Christmas.
06:32That's just, you know, we've made it more kind of valid feel, mid-tempo, but it kind of, like, Hillary's voice is just in the spot where I just love it.
06:42I love her voice in that spot.
06:43Whatever that tender, it brings out a lot of great tone and nuances in it.
06:48And it's just a really well-written song.
06:50And I feel like over the years that's become maybe my top three Christmas song to listen to.
06:57I mean, I love Wham's version.
06:58I love Taylor Swift's version.
07:00The Wham version I will listen to in the middle of July with, like, the top down on the conversion.
07:03It is amazing.
07:03It's so happy.
07:04But isn't it wild that that song makes you happy?
07:06Listen to the lyrics.
07:07No, the lyrics are awful.
07:08You know, we actually made you want to actually feel the lyrics a little bit more.
07:12But, no, there's a lot.
07:14And then Dave had a great idea on, like, Winter Wonderland.
07:16We made it kind of beachy, you know, because there's so many versions of that song.
07:20So if you're going to do something that there's just a million versions of, you know, but I don't know.
07:25It's hard to nail down on one specific song.
07:27Yeah, I mean, a lot of them are really harmony-based, like Winter Wonderland.
07:29And, I mean, we got to do Oh, Holy Night.
07:31That was one we didn't do on the first project.
07:33And, obviously, that song is such a special story around Christmas and the meaning of Christmas.
07:39But ours is really, like, three-part harmony.
07:42Charles has a really, like, amazing vocal on that song.
07:46And a lot of this was really built around the harmonies.
07:49We try to lean into more.
07:50Like, when we do acoustic shows, people are always like, gosh, I love you guys with just voices in a guitar.
07:55And so we have three or four songs that kind of fit a little more in that organic space where the voices are the forefront as well.
08:02That's going to be amazing.
08:03I'm just, like, picturing you guys, like, you know, in the rhyme and doing that.
08:05Like, I would listen to you guys do a whole concert with, like, out any instruments and then, like, just sing.
08:09So, like, what moments in the show with the tour are you, like, the most excited about?
08:14I think a lot of this.
08:15I mean, that's actually one reason I think we did go the majority of this record a little more organic was actually with the show in mind.
08:22Was going, okay, we pretty much have, like, a lot of those big, fun moments covered on the first Christmas record.
08:29And we're not bringing an orchestra with us.
08:31Yeah, so it's like, and we're not going to lose $100,000 a night on an orchestra.
08:37But I think that is, having that in mind, the tour actually helped us make this record.
08:44Because, like, we want, we had already envisioned the tour, like, kind of starting out pretty fun, but then kind of easing people in.
08:50And, I mean, we're even going to do a slow, what do you call it, matinee?
08:55What do you call it?
08:56Intermission.
08:57Intermission.
08:57Oh, I love intermission.
08:58So, we're even going to do a little intermission.
09:00So, it's just a way to take them through a little bit of a journey because, you know, and then end really strong and fun.
09:06And, you know, we are going to have some horns out.
09:08But it's like, to me, to create a cool kind of, you know, like, some different moments in the show.
09:15Maybe even a little costume change.
09:18Oh, we like that.
09:18I love a Christmas show because it feels like a recital.
09:21You get to sit down.
09:22It's so cold.
09:23And you can kind of pull the cheese out a little bit without being judged.
09:27Oh, you can pull the cheese, yeah.
09:28We might pull cheese a little bit.
09:30There's such a wide breadth of, like, feelings and, you know, experiences with Christmas.
09:37You know, some people go and they listen to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra every year and that's there.
09:42So, it's this big, really produced sound.
09:44And then you have, you know, the more intimate, like, just a guitar, like you're in front of the fireplace.
09:50And I think we all have, at least I'll speak for myself, I love all of it.
09:55And so, to try to bring what we do into all of those spaces to give the audience that full, well-rounded experience.
10:03I mean, and I've just dreamed of families coming and bringing their kids.
10:10And it's like, you know, the show's in the evening.
10:12Bring your kids.
10:13Let them wear their Christmas jammies.
10:14Like, make it a big, you know, like, I can't wait to look out and see.
10:17We were all generations of a family coming.
10:18I want grandma all the way down to the, you know, to the little toddler.
10:23And we're always looking for ways to connect with the crowd.
10:25Like, and that's what our last theater tour, really, we learned so much because it was all requests, you know, it was a request line.
10:32And so, the way that you can have a conversation with the crowd and make it just feel like a once, truly, once in a night, once in a lifetime night, we're excited to bring that aspect of what we do into each tour date.
10:49It is going to be so much fun.
10:50I want to talk more Christmas-themed questions with you guys.
10:53What kind of holiday shoppers are you?
10:55Are you, like, done ahead of time?
10:57Are you procrastinators?
10:58Are you out Christmas-y?
10:59Well, this year we have to be done ahead of time.
11:00We have to be early this year.
11:01Our tour, whoo, this tour is busy.
11:03I mean, you obviously are fitting in a whole, you know, tour from December 1 to 24, basically, or 23.
11:09I like to go a little on the early side.
11:11I start to get a little stressed out in the last-minute world.
11:14I mean, starting Thanksgiving, we kind of start the sort of decorations that afternoon.
11:19You know, we start making the Excel spreadsheet of family gifts and everything.
11:23You're so organized.
11:24Well, I'll put that on.
11:25Yeah, my wife does.
11:26But anyways, yeah.
11:27I mean, I'd say more Thanksgiving and stay early, especially with this year.
11:31But I know y'all decorate early, too, Hill.
11:33We do.
11:33We do.
11:34I've got things in an Amazon cart right now.
11:37I haven't pressed go on them.
11:39But yeah.
11:40Shop and early.
11:40Piling it up.
11:41Shop and early.
11:42Have one more little person to buy for this year.
11:44And yeah, just trying to think about every year we get to the end of Christmas Day and we promise that we're going to do less.
11:55Because the kids, it's like, I need to just space them out over a week or two.
12:00I feel like they get so overwhelmed.
12:02And a lot of it is my mom and dad.
12:04If you're listening, you can buy less.
12:07But we know you love them and spoil them.
12:09But I think that we just have that conversation every year of like, how can we just make this more quality and less quantity?
12:18And I think that's some of what I'm thinking about going into this year, too.
12:22And maybe the tour will be a beautiful way that that naturally kind of takes shape.
12:27Because we don't have as much time to go get the last minute things that they probably would never have missed.
12:34Right.
12:34Exactly.
12:35Do you have like a go-to gift?
12:36Do you have like a little bottle of wine that you always give or a gadget that you're like, this always?
12:41I think with our team, we had somebody that works with us and she would always send oranges.
12:47And that was her thing.
12:48Because we have a ton of people in our crew.
12:50Yeah, so many.
12:51And I almost think that's the more stressful thing is making sure you don't forget someone and do.
12:56Yeah.
12:57But like, she was always the orange person.
13:01And it was like, I always knew I was going to have, which sounds random, but I always loved it.
13:04It's memorable.
13:05And I was like, oh sweet, I got oranges.
13:06Or you might be the, and I tried to be the steak guy for a while.
13:08I would do like the Omaha steaks.
13:11But like, yeah, I want to be known as like, this is the guy.
13:15And Charles, you know.
13:16You want to get on the list.
13:17I want to add, it's like, yeah, you want to get, yeah.
13:19Whatever it might be.
13:21You know, Charles' famous meatloaf.
13:23There you go.
13:24Oh, what is this famous?
13:26Is it famous?
13:27I actually love meatloaf, but like something about like, yeah, sending me a loaf of meat.
13:31Charles' fruitcake.
13:33I hate fruitcake.
13:34Oh.
13:34You gotta find it.
13:35Are you the only human being in the world actually loves fruitcake?
13:37Anything that sits there for 30 days, it's aged, you know.
13:41Soaked.
13:41It's like, I am into it.
13:43Soaked in love.
13:45What about favorite family traditions?
13:47Either ones you did growing up or you do with the kids now?
13:50I think everybody does the Christmas jammies now.
13:52That's kind of the thing.
13:53That has become everyone.
13:53But it's so perfect.
13:54I mean, you gotta do it.
13:55Everybody.
13:56It's hard to find jammies that fit me.
13:58I can never get ones that truly match.
14:00Right.
14:00Which stinks.
14:01They're not long enough.
14:02Yeah.
14:02I've been, I'm still begging for a onesie for a 6'6".
14:07Big and tall.
14:09Yeah.
14:09Because I want a onesie so bad.
14:11And one can imagine without going into detail what a tight onesie does on a 6'6 man.
14:17Right.
14:17That's why there's not any family photos of that.
14:19It pools in places you don't want to be pooled.
14:22I've tried.
14:23And it just doesn't work.
14:25It does not work.
14:27Have you guys thought at all about New Year's resolutions?
14:29Because that is also upon us.
14:31That's a great question.
14:33I haven't made it past the Christmas tour personally.
14:35I know.
14:36I know.
14:36I always get to December 30th and I'm like, oh, I forgot to think about that.
14:38Oh, yeah.
14:39There's another holiday.
14:39I forgot to think about that.
14:41Yeah.
14:41I think if I would have to name one, it would just be, I think this will be relatable to
14:47a lot of people listening, lower my screen time.
14:50Oh, God.
14:51That is my New Year's resolution.
14:52And I think what I'm going to start doing, because I know that this has been healthy and
14:57helpful for others is get an old school alarm clock and leave my phone elsewhere when I'm
15:05sleeping.
15:05I have such a hard time committing to the alarm clock, though, because I'm like, is it going
15:08to go off?
15:08I know.
15:09I don't know why.
15:09I have a block about it.
15:10Yeah.
15:11Or if the power switches on and off.
15:13But yeah.
15:14Welcome to things I should probably just write in my diary and not say out loud, but less screen
15:18time.
15:19I'm with you on that one.
15:21Charles, Dave.
15:22I'm perfect.
15:22I don't know anything.
15:22Okay.
15:23We need that.
15:25Dave?
15:25Oh, boy.
15:26I like that idea, though.
15:28We're ordering one of these phones that you can actually use on the wall.
15:32There's this new thing.
15:33Oh, Tin Can.
15:34Yeah.
15:34Yeah.
15:34My friends have it.
15:35I've been calling my best friend's kids to say hi.
15:38Because it's their house phone.
15:38Yeah.
15:38I want to lean into some more stuff like that, too.
15:41I mean, I think that's like...
15:42That'd be fun for the kids.
15:43Yeah.
15:43You actually call and ask for somebody.
15:45They'll FaceTime on his laptop.
15:47Right.
15:47And I mean, it's ridiculous.
15:50They just have these conversations, which I guess is not.
15:52That's better than texting or whatever.
15:54But I was just...
15:55That's a great idea for the kids.
15:57It's fun.
15:58I used to call my best friend in the commercial break of shows we would watch.
16:03Yeah.
16:03And we'd like, did you see?
16:05Did you...
16:05Crazy.
16:05You know, and just debrief and then call the next commercial break.
16:09I mean, it really was...
16:10Those were really sweet times to be teens and out of the landline.
16:14We were trying to explain call waiting, which was pretty advanced.
16:18Yeah.
16:19But Cassie's trying to explain that because she grew up in a house with a bunch of sisters
16:22and girls, and she said it was the nightly fight.
16:26One...
16:27They all had boyfriends they wanted to be on the phone with, and it was like, call waiting.
16:30It's like, your boy...
16:31And they'd get really upset if she didn't answer or let them know that her boyfriend had called.
16:38And I was like, I can only imagine a house with three girls.
16:41Has the boyfriend, like, feel blown off like you didn't answer the phone?
16:43I remember when we got caller ID.
16:45I was just about to say...
16:46Crazy.
16:47That was fancy.
16:48It's like technology.
16:49I know.
16:50It is so funny how far we've come.
16:52Now you literally FaceTime everyone all the time.
16:54All right.
16:54Last question.
16:55Non-Christmas music related.
16:57Have you guys been working on new music?
16:59Yes.
17:00Yeah.
17:00We have a good, hefty Dropbox file going of songs.
17:05And we're just excited.
17:06You know, the top of the year, we're creatively kind of brainstorming and talking right now.
17:11And then at the top of the year, that'll be the focus of just digging in and seeing what stories we want to tell and production.
17:20You know, we want to just, I think, stretch ourselves more than we ever have.
17:26We've lived a lot of life since our last project.
17:28So I think bringing in all that inspiration and just discovering what we want to say and how we want to say it.
17:36I think we're definitely excited to explore, to get, you know, maybe a little creatively uncomfortable.
17:43Yeah.
17:43I mean, I think, you know, one of the things we've, I think we've said a lot with the last few records was like, we want to get back to the sound of kind of our first couple records.
17:50And I think we've done that.
17:51And now it's like, we want to get to a sound we've never explored.
17:55And we don't know what that is.
17:56Right.
17:56Because I think our voices are going to be the threat of it.
17:59Always.
17:59You know, but I would love a risky, like she said, an uncomfortable feeling of production wise that like, we're not used to embrace the imperfections, all those things, you know.
18:11And so it's going to be fun.
18:12I mean, that's going to be the focus of next year, I think, for us.
18:15You know, we're going to do some light touring, you know, because baby's got to eat.
18:20Yeah.
18:20But also, too, it's just we miss that, too.
18:23You know, we've like, we've always kind of done that.
18:25We had the Request Line tour not too long ago, but I think that keeps us kind of fresh, too, and excited.
18:31But the focus is going to be music.
18:33I think this is this is the longest we've been in between records.
18:37And I just think we're ready to kind of see if we can turn some heads, you know, in a cool way.
18:42That's exciting.
18:42Well, thank you guys so much for taking the time to come and talk about this Christmas music.
18:45I'm so excited to see the tour.
18:47It's going to be so much fun.
18:48I appreciate you guys.
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